Google to HTC: take these patents, keep fighting Apple

Google has given HTC nine patents to use against Apple in court: four in a new …

Apple is now being sued by HTC with patents that were owned by Google until a few days ago, according to Bloomberg. HTC already had cases going against Apple (Apple, likewise, has gone after HTC on a few fronts), but the new patents stand to bolster its lawsuits, and may even include property acquired by Google when it bought Motorola Mobility.

Google transferred nine patents to HTC on September 1, four of which were originally sourced from Motorola and are being used against Apple in a federal court in Delaware. The remaining five, three from Openwave Systems and two from Palm, will help HTC amend a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) filed in Washington and possibly reverse the preliminary ruling that HTC has infringed on Apple.

The Next Web notes that one of these patents in the ITC complaint concerns a realtime API that is widely used in the Android ecosystem, and Apple claims to own it. If HTC lost that ground to Apple, the effects could ripple through the entire Android platform, hence Google's concern and urgent patent "gifts" to bolster HTC's case. Now, we're left wondering if Google will play patent fairy to Apple's other aggressors and targets as well. Samsung, anyone?

This is so absurd:Is this really why Google spent all that money for Motorola?How can Google think that all Android manufacturers are the same? HTC could use those patents to attack Samsung right?Is Google just going to dole out $16b worth of patents to try and make Android legal?

Or is this just some hair brained, short term band aid solution that so epitomizes Google at the moment?

I'm happy to see a corporate entity that thinks patents are as absurd as the average software developer. The stockholders may not be happy but anything to further erode the blunt force power with which corporations like Apple use patents can only be good for the consumer.

In part these actions reflect the reality of open source software. If Android was proprietary, Apple would deal with Google and that would be the end of it. Instead we have a complex reality where it is useful to Google to have some means of keeping control over Android but individual Android vendors have to do their own negotiations about Android intellectual property. The irony with Samsung is that it is a major Apple vendor for Apple hardware. My guess is that when the dust settles Apple and Oracle are going to accept that Android is going to survive in the market and understand what the market will bear for royalties on their intellectual property. Then they will make deals in private with each company that wants to market Android products the same way companies like IBM and Microsoft have done in the past. Once they have to let some companies in, there is no incentive for them to lock others out.

You must not have a good sense of business. This is a good idea. Google needs companies like HTC to support android. If they lose all their profit on patent licenses to apple or other companies they won't make android phones. Google is giving them the power to fight back and set precedent.

I'm sure Google had stipulations in the deal so they can't Sue other android vendors with these patents.

Giving away patents is bad business practice. It decreases Google's worth, increases the potency of a (newly) direct competitor, and lowers Google's own defensive capabilities.

This ++

Am SURE that Google has "protected" (in form of contracts i'm sure) themselves against such thing, like "we give you this patent to use under the condition that you cant use it anywhere else/against us"

This is so absurd:Is this really why Google spent all that money for Motorola?How can Google think that all Android manufacturers are the same? HTC could use those patents to attack Samsung right?Is Google just going to dole out $16b worth of patents to try and make Android legal?

Or is this just some hair brained, short term band aid solution that so epitomizes Google at the moment?

1. Part of the transfer agreement may include HTC extending a royalty-free license to all devices running Android.2. Part of the transfer agreement may give Google the option to buy the patents back at any time for a predetermined price (possibly even $1).

Giving away patents is bad business practice. It decreases Google's worth, increases the potency of a (newly) direct competitor, and lowers Google's own defensive capabilities.

It actually shows that google is quite serious in protecting its partners from aggressive lawsuits of competitors. This is especially relevant as google just bought Motorola Mobility and there were some doubts as to google's commitment to other handset makers.

Furthermore, if HTC loses, by proxy, it would mean that google loses. We don't know the details of the patent transfer, but I don't think google is stupid enough to transfer them without any obligations to HTC.

I'm happy to see a corporate entity that thinks patents are as absurd as the average software developer. The stockholders may not be happy but anything to further erode the blunt force power with which corporations like Apple use patents can only be good for the consumer.

so it's good for the consumers when every company makes clones of the same thing.

They could... but Apple are like Righthaven, rather than go for someone who can fight back try picking up the easy targets for as long as possible.

Google is one of the few companies that can match them lawyer for lawyer, like Righthaven they think: "who wants that?"

Actually, no, Apple cant sue google because Google does not sell Android. It is a lot easier to show a manufacturer infringing on the patent rather than the developer of open source software. Google also has very few patents (thus their recent whining about it) and would be totally destroyed in an all out patent war.

This is so absurd:Is this really why Google spent all that money for Motorola?How can Google think that all Android manufacturers are the same? HTC could use those patents to attack Samsung right?Is Google just going to dole out $16b worth of patents to try and make Android legal?

Or is this just some hair brained, short term band aid solution that so epitomizes Google at the moment?

1. Part of the transfer agreement may include HTC extending a royalty-free license to all devices running Android.2. Part of the transfer agreement may give Google the option to buy the patents back at any time for a predetermined price (possibly even $1).

This seems like a perfectly reasonable approach to me.

It seems to me like an interim solution at best.

Longer term, I think Google may be planning to set up a Community Cross-License (CCL) patent pool for Android, similar to the CCL pool that they have set up already for WebM.

Members of the pool would all license each other for their applicable collected patents.

Once such a pool is set up, starting with the Motorola Mobility patents, it would then make sense for all Android manufacturers to join. This would then create a strong group of OEMs, with substantial patent protection shared between them, producing Android devices.

Can all affected parties just stop with the patent nonsense? Apple trying to win the mobile OS war with patents rather than real competition pisses me off enough already, I don't want to see "my side" doing the same shit.

They could... but Apple are like Righthaven, rather than go for someone who can fight back try picking up the easy targets for as long as possible.

Google is one of the few companies that can match them lawyer for lawyer, like Righthaven they think: "who wants that?"

Normally it's good to keep ones composure and keep insults out of ars conversations, but I am going to come out and say what everyone is thinking with no contractions so it's easy to understand:

You are an idiot.

Every comment you have ever made on this site is a full blown troll post. It would be hard to imagine a person who could actually believe the things that you type every single time you post here. That's all I have to say other than I cannot believe that you have the capability to post here at all.

Giving away patents is bad business practice. It decreases Google's worth, increases the potency of a (newly) direct competitor, and lowers Google's own defensive capabilities.

It actually shows that google is quite serious in protecting its partners from aggressive lawsuits of competitors. This is especially relevant as google just bought Motorola Mobility and there were some doubts as to google's commitment to other handset makers.

This would all be solved by Google setting up a Community Cross-License pool for Android.

I think Google letting HTC use some patents to counter-suit against Apple may be the first step from Google in just that direction.